About Uruguay

Uruguay’s Housing Situation

Housing cooperatives are widespread throughout Uruguay, extending from the capital, Montevideo, and its surrounding metropolitan area to small towns in the interior of the country. The key drivers behind this development have been the principles of cooperation, active participation, direct democracy, and the presence of a supportive legal framework and public financing.

As at 2022, Uruguay has a quantitative housing deficit, estimated to be between 50,000 and 60,000 housing units. The Ministry of Housing and Land Use Planning is responsible for the corresponding policies. The country’s total permanent housing stock is slightly over 1.1 million, while the total population is less than 3.5 million.

In the past five decades, despite having a powerful law, the situation has not substantially improved. There are over six hundred irregular settlements where more than fifty thousand families, totalling around two hundred thousand people, live. These settlements suffer from legal insecurity, physical deficiencies, and lack basic services.

The state implemented various programs to address this issue, which are now consolidated under the Directorate of Social and Urban Integration. These programs include Neighborhood Improvement, relocations, and a mitigation program known as “Plan Juntos” (Plan Together).

The Cooperative Model

The cooperative model is the most efficient at providing low-cost urban housing through self-management and individual contributions. This can either be in the form of mutual aid cooperatives, where members contribute work, or pre-savings cooperatives, where members contribute money. In addition, by collectively owning the housing complexes and granting the right of use and enjoyment to its members, cooperatives prevent speculation in the social housing market.

Legal Framework

Since 1968, Uruguay has had a national housing law that legally recognizes the cooperative system and establishes financing mechanisms. These mechanisms provide access to housing for all sectors through subsidies that consider the income and family composition of the groups involved.

Although there is a relevant legal frame of reference, housing investment remains low.  Social housing pays taxes, while private investment is exempt, causing a cost increase of 12 to 20%. Additionally, loans are offered at market interest rates instead of social interest rates, forcing them to consume a significant portion of public housing resources through subsidies.

For the cooperative movement to succeed, it requires support from the state in the form of legal status and public financing, including loans and subsidies to facilitate housing payments.

Dictatorship Years

During the dictatorship from 1973 to 1985, the cooperative and housing movements were practically outlawed. Leaders and activists were persecuted, loans and legal status was suspended, and there were attempts to eliminate collective ownership. However, with the resurgence of democracy, the housing cooperative movement has been growing and consolidating. Today, it is recognized as the most efficient tool for providing access to decent housing for the popular sectors.

Federations

Despite the challenges mentioned earlier, the country has more than seven hundred housing cooperatives organized into two main federations: FUCVAM, focused on mutual aid, and FECOVI, which emphasizes previous savings. These cooperatives, with several decades of history, bring together around thirty thousand families and over one hundred thousand individuals. Considering the size of the country and the historical lack of support for cooperatives, these numbers clearly demonstrate the significant impact of the housing cooperative movement, making it an important social player.

CUDECOOP

The Uruguayan Confederation of Cooperative Entities (CUDECOOP) is the highest representative body of the Uruguayan cooperative movement.

CUDECOOP represents more than 3,500 grassroots cooperatives from all sectors active in the country, involving more than one million cooperative members.

Listen to this Coop Conversations podcast with Alicia Maneiro, President of CUDECOOP.

FUCVAM

The Uruguayan Federation of Mutual Aid Cooperatives (FUCVAM) is a trade organization established in 1970. Its mission is to strengthen the right to housing by uniting cooperatives under the principles of mutual aid and collective property. The founders and workers of FUCVAM recognized the cooperative model as a solution to housing challenges in lower-income sectors.

Mutual Aid is a unique feature of the Uruguyan cooperative movement. Over time, Mutual Aid has evolved to not only contribute financially to housing construction but also to involve future cooperative members in the design and creative process, shaping an alternative social model. It also sets the stage for harmonious coexistence and fosters social awareness within the community.

The Cooperative Housing Movement for Mutual Aid emerged from the working class to address the housing problem and create neighbourhoods that provide a dignified and decent life for residents. Originally, housing cooperatives were closely tied to the Uruguayan Trade Union Movement and adopted strategic definitions with a strong focus on class. This class-based approach allowed cooperativism to encompass a wide range of needs as a unified class, rather than focusing on a specific sector of society.

Since the early 2000s, the Uruguayan Federation of Mutual Aid Housing Cooperatives (FUCVAM) has been collaborating with international partners and other organizations to adapt its housing cooperative model for Central American countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

Starting in 2004, We Effect’s Regional Housing and Habitat Program in Latin America aimed to facilitate and promote the transfer and replication of this cooperative housing model from Uruguay to other countries. Since then, the cooperative housing sector in the Mesoamerican region has experienced significant growth and progress.

Members of Castalia Housing Cooperative in Montevideo, Uruguay

FECOVI

The first housing cooperatives in Uruguay were established in 1966, based on three initiatives promoted by the Uruguayan Cooperative Centre (CCU) in towns across the country. In 1968, the Uruguayan Parliament passed the National Housing Law, which provided a legal framework for the promotion of social housing programs, institutionalizing the housing cooperative system through two management modalities (mutual aid and prior savings) and two forms of ownership (user cooperatives and owner cooperatives).

By the end of 1969, the prior savings cooperatives formed the National Federation of Housing Cooperatives (FENACOVI) to advocate for the savings system as a solution to the housing issues faced by the country’s workers. However, with the establishment of the military regime in 1973, a series of challenges hindered the development of housing cooperatives. In 1976 the prior savings cooperatives were discontinued by a decree of the dictatorship. Although the Federation closed down the cooperatives continued to represent a democratic stronghold, organizing themselves to resist the military regime. FENACOVI was reinstated institutionally in 1984, opposing the unfair and illegal adjustments in interest rates for loan repayments.

Through an extensive effort to promote new cooperatives and attract existing ones, both in Montevideo and the interior of the country, FENACOVI currently comprises around 105 prior savings cooperatives with members at various stages: completed, under construction, and in the formation phase, representing over 5,000 families.

The institutional objectives of FECOVI are defined as:

• the vindication of the pre-savings system as a solution to the housing problem
• the trade union defence of pre-savings cooperatives
• the promotion and creation of new housing cooperatives
• the planning and execution of cooperative training programs
• the coordination of actions with other organizations that seek to eliminate the housing deficit
• the coordination of actions with organizations of other cooperative modalities in the defence and promotion of cooperatives

Watch the video below about Castalia Housing Cooperative in Montevideo.

Malecón Mauá cooperative on the Montevideo Promenade in the Sur neighbourhood housing 46 families.

Resources Tagged "Uruguay"

Miradas, Reflexiones, Acciones y Propuestas Desde la Red de Vivienda de Cooperativas de las Américas

This Spanish publication describes the housing situation in Central and South American countries that are active members of the Cooperative Housing Network of the Americas. This is only a sample of the situation in the region as a whole.Read More

Research Argentina Report

Housing in Uruguay

Architect, Alma Varela describes the dynamic processes for low-income housing in Uruguay. Alma Varela is Co-Director of Estudio Pons + Varela, designing and developing “Paperback Project” for Low-income Housing, prized and sp ...Read More

Financing and Development Uruguay

Self-Managed Cooperative Housing by Mutual-Assistance as Introduced in Central America between 2004 and 2016; the Attractiveness of the ‘FUCVAM’ Model of Uruguay

This paper, written by International Urban Planer/Housing Researcher, Jan Bredenoord, discusses the importance of cooperative housing through mutual assistance and collective ownership in Latin America. Cooperative housing is a fo ...Read More

Community Uruguay

¿Qué es una cooperativa? ¿Cómo formarla?

El presente trabajo está destinado a favorecer la comprensión más amplia acerca de las cooperativas y cómo pueden crearse por parte de aquellos grupos interesados o estimular su formación mediante la promoción pública o pri ...Read More

Financing and Development Uruguay

Financing Co-operative and Mutual Housing

The Commission's final report on Cooperative and Mutual Housing (Bringing Democracy Home) highlighted the need for consideration of the role that cooperative and mutual housing could play in the national housing strategy. The Fina ...Read More

Financing and Development Global Report

Logement abordable : profils de cinq villes métropolitaines

Par cette publication, nous souhaitons ouvrir le débat sur le logement en tant que droit fondamental et enjeu métropolitain, en mettant en lumière l’expérience de grandes métropoles et dans l’espoir d’inspirer des idées nouvelles pour aborder cet enjeu absolument fondamental de l’urbanisation moderne.Read More

Advocacy Global

Towards the Localization of the Sustainable Development Goals

The Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments prepared a report showcasing how cities and regions are fostering alternative housing policies to support the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. With increased urbanization, ...Read More

Advocacy Global

Building Strong Development Cooperation: Partnership Opportunities between Cooperatives and the EU

In 2000, United Nations (UN) member states recognised the need to build global partnerships for development and the exchange of expertise as one of the Millennium Development Goals. Across the international development field, part ...Read More

Financing and Development Global

Raising Capital: The Capital Conundrum for Co-operatives

New report: The Capital Conundrum for Co-operatives "The Capital Conundrum for Co-operatives", a new report released by the Alliance’s Blue Ribbon Commission explores ideas and options available to co-operatives that need suitab ...Read More

Financing and Development Global

Sustainable Use of Forests: an Urgent Global Challenge

The unsustainable exploitation of our planet’s forests is a major contributor to global warming and threatens the future of humanity. Co-operative Housing International believes that the co-operative family has a role to play to prevent the ongoing degradation of the forests and is calling all co-operatives to support its Sustainable Management Forest Initiative.Read More

Sustainability Global

Financing Housing Co-operatives in a Credit Crunch

Financing the development of housing co-operatives is a challenge and more so in time of financial restrictions and uncertainty.  CHI members discussed the issue during a seminar held in November 2009 in Geneva.  Presentations w ...Read More

Financing and Development Global

What’s new in Sustainable Forest Management?

 The Forest Products Annual Market Review 2013 reports that the development of new refinement processes has led to the production of new and more affordable wood based products such as cross-laminated timber (CLT). The report sta ...Read More

Sustainability Global

The Guidance Notes on the Co-operative Principles

Updated Guidance Notes on the Co-operative Principles, edited by David Rodgers, former President of Co-operative Housing InternationalRead More

Governance Global

Promoting Cooperatives – International Labour Organization (ILO) Recommendation 193 on the Promotion of Cooperatives

The ILO views cooperatives as important in improving the living and working conditions of women and men globally as well as making essential infrastructure and services available even in areas neglected by the state and investor-driven enterprises. Cooperatives have a proven record of creating and sustaining employment – they provide over 100 million jobs today; they advance the ILO’s Global Employment Agenda and contribute to promoting decent work.Read More

Legal Global

Profiles of a Movement: Co-operative Housing around the World – Volume One

This first volume includes the co-operative housing profile of 22 countries. This report presents the history and the current realities of co-operative housing around the world.  CHI is currently in the process of updating the ...Read More

Community Global

Students and Housing Cooperatives

Student housing cooperatives have become very popular in the USA and many of these housing co-operatives are members of organizations such as NASCO. Unlike a resident who acquires shares at market rates to earn the right to occupy ...Read More

Community Global

Environment Sustainability and Climate Change Seminars

To further our commitment towards sustainable sources of timber and forest products and to provide co-operators more information on the certification programmes and successful sustainable initiatives, CHI organized a seminar on S ...Read More

Sustainability Global

Housing Co-operatives and Climate Change

ICA members adopted a resolution at the 2007 General Assembly calling on the co-operative movement to do its share in combating climate changes. The resolution suggests three ways on how the co-op movement can act now: Measure and ...Read More

Sustainability Global

Legal Frameworks for Housing Co-operatives: Seminars

As part of CHI's plan to map its activities to the International Co-operative Alliance's Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade, CHI held a seminar on one of the Blueprint elements:  Legal Frameworks for Housing Co-operatives. “Co ...Read More

Legal Global

Good Governance Charter for Housing Co-operatives

 The Good Governance Charter for Housing Co-operatives was launched at the ICA Housing Plenary in Manchester in November 2012.It has three parts:A 10-point set of good governance practicesAn interpretive statement for each good p ...Read More

Governance Global

Profiles of a Movement: Co-operative Housing around the World – Volume Two

Volume 2 of the Profiles of a Movement concentrates on the African continent. We are pleased to present the remarkable work achieved by the African co-operators, work accomplished in a very challenging environment. These profil ...Read More

Community Global

Financing and Climate Change Seminars

Seminars about continued public sector investment in co-operative housing in Austria and Canada, innovative funding arrangements created by the co-operative housing sector in Italy and harnessing member investment through co-opera ...Read More

Financing and Development Global

The Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade and its Special Application to the Housing Sector

The Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade is a worldwide campaign to “take the co-operative way of doing business to a new level”. The five key elements of the Blueprint are participation, sustainability, identity, legal frameworks and capital. The Blueprint is particularly relevant to co-operative housing and the Blueprint interpretation for co-operative housing below explains how.Read More

Governance Global